Side by Side

J-Ward Girl shouldn't have to work outside her jurisdiction.

But when a friend (one of my favorite people to talk music and guys with) who lives in Church Hill tells me she still hasn't been to the Roosevelt, I feel duty bound to fix that.

It's not like they've got a glut of places to eat on the Hill, either.

Strangely and for the first time, when I walked into the restaurant, it was empty. I'd never seen it empty.

That lasted about five minutes and then they were off and running, but for a moment it was like a parallel universe where everything looks the same but is somehow very different.

Although my friend and I had planned to just have a drink, we gave in to the menu.

I got tonight's special of fingerling potatoes, cucumber, lump crabmeat and poached shrimp with honeydew/vanilla dressing, enjoying the unusual combination.

Despite allergies to practically everything, my friend ended up with a grilled Belgian endive salad with pears and pecans that disproved her assumption that she'd be unable to find things to eat there.

This is why I need to get my friends out of their houses and show them the bigger world.

I'm doing it for their sakes.

Once I'd finished introducing her neighborhood  to her, I left to meet another friend in sore need of a symphonic evening.

And I sure didn't need any affirmation that the Singleton Center was where I wanted to be tonight.

It wasn't rocket science. It was the American debut of "Bon Seni Variations" composed by VCU's own Doug Richards. A commissioned symphonic piece based on Turkish folk music and jazz. Several of the soloists had also played at the premiere in Turkey.

Not to make presumptions, but there was a reason the local jazz DJ, one of the best sax players and my favorite jazz drummer were all in attendance.

I said the same thing to them all before the performance. "Too good to miss, isn't it?"

Beginning with a singer doing an a capella version of "Bon Seni," that theme went on to weave in and out of the composition in various alterations by the VCU Symphony.

The soloists traded off with the orchestra and the whole thing was a layering of Middle Eastern sounds so dense you couldn't hear it all.

Not that I didn't try.

When it ended, the crowd was on its feet and rightfully so. What an interesting piece of new music had been dropped in our collective lap on this January night.

You could tell that many people must have come solely for Richards piece because the almost-full crowd had thinned a bit after intermission.

Which was too bad because they missed Dvorak's tribute to Native American and Negro music, the "New World" Symphony.

The man can call it a tribute to whatever he wanted, but it sounded like that Romantic music that my friend in the symphony is always mooning about.

Let's just say Neil Armstrong took the "New World" symphony to the moon with him for a reason.

But if I was going to write an essay on "How I Spent My Tuesday Evening," I'd start with the national premier of a Richmond-written symphony.

Right here in Richmond.

Friends don't let friends miss that sort of thing.